This Week In The WCW
This Week In The WCW
Note from Bill: MANY, MANY thanks to Ben J. for his {Pro} and Nitro reports. Ben will be the regular Sunday night reporter from now on as I will be 30,000 feet in the air whenever {Pro} airs for the next few months.
As for the Nitro report, here comes the drama. I get to my hotel (well, actually motel) room on Sunday night, and the TV doesn't carry TNT. So, I leave the girlfriend an urgent voicemail to send Ben (who I've only ever corresponded with via e-mail) an e-mail asking him to do a Nitro report and mail it to me at my work e-mail so I can get it and post it and have him send a copy to my personal e-mail to store when I get home. This is all dependent on him checking his e-mail before Nitro. So, tonight, I get back to my motel room and can't figure out how to make the modem work until this little plastic card falls out of the phone revealing the data port. Then, I dial up my work e-mail and I can't get through to my mailbox. So, I dial up my ISP manually and connect. Of course, I haven't loaded an e-mail package on my laptop since I'm getting a new one in a week or two. So, I telnet to my ISP (note this is all going on at long distance rates from Phoenix, AZ to Northern Virginia) and use UNIX Pine mail in the hopes, perchance, a Nitro report is there. Lo and behold it is. After a few more minutes at long distance rates figuring out how to export the message from Pine and then FTP it down, I've got it. A little reformatting, and we're good to go.
Anyway, two points to the story. The less important one is that for the remainder of my stint in Phoenix, I'm staying in a better hotel which I happen to know does have TNT, so this near fiasco shouldn't happen again (I hope). The more important one is that, if you have a moment, please click on Ben's name above his report and send him an e-mail if you like what you read. Especially, if you didn't get a chance to see Nitro, if it wasn't for him checking his e-mail yesterday and taking the time to put this together, you wouldn't have had a report on this Nitro until probably the following Saturday. I'm counting on him to do the Sunday {Pro} reports for the next few months, so please stroke his ego. Lord knows, just like me, he's not making a dime off this.
WCW Monday Night Nitro - Monday, 06/23/97
- Gene-O interviews DDP w/Kimberly. Kim said that she had called JJ
Dillon and got a match set up for tonight between DDP and Hall.
- Does Anybody Really Believe #1:
- Does anybody really believe that this match will end without
incident?
- La Parka and Damien upset Public Enemy.
- Damien was laid on the table outside of the ring. Rocco Rock
leapt off Johnny Grunge, who was on all fours in the ring, and splashes
onto Damien. While Grunge was looking at the carnage outside of the
ring, La Parka grabbed a chair and hit Grunge from behind.
- Commercial. WWF was on, meaning they had wrestling, not a
commercial.
- Steve Regal to be on Saturday Night. Good to see him back.
- Gene-O interviewed Eddie Guererro. Eddie said he wasn't released
last week to wrestle, and Chavo offered to wrestle Malenko for Eddie.
Chavo came out and was given Eddie's Cruiserweight shot tonight against
Syxx. Eddie said he had Chavo's back.
- "Lionheart" Chris Jericho beat Alex Wright with the Boston Crab.
- Wright pinned Jericho with his legs on the ropes two weeks ago
on Nitro.
- Commercial. WWF was on.
- Steiner Brothers beat Harlem Heat after Rick Steiner bulldogged
Booker T.
- Rick Irish Whipped Booker T. against the ropes, right where
Sister Sherri was standing, throwing her off the apron into the arms of
Stevie Ray. Booker T. was dazed, Rick went to the top rope, then
bulldog.
- After BOTH teams were announced and went to the ring, there
was a commercial break. The WWF was on. There was just a commercial
about 2 minutes ago then they put this one in with both teams standing
around the ring picking their behinds. The kicker is that it wasn't
even timed to coincide with a USA Network commercial break. Sad.
- Gene-O with Scott "Flash" Norton, Buff Bagwell and Vincent. Buff
called himself and Norton "Vicious and Delicious." Rick Steiner said he
wants Hall and Nash next week in Las Vegas.
- Commercial. WWF on. Some WWF announcer said: "You tell that Eric
Bischoff that Sabu is the originator of the table." (In reference to
Public Enemy.)
- Hector Garza pinned Villano 4 after a backflip splash.
- Commercial. WWF on.
- Gene-O with Luger and Giant in street clothes. Flexy Lexy said that
every security measure would be taken -- WCW crack security team, WCW
referees and WCW wrestlers would watch their back when they go against Rodman and Hogan. Personal thought:
too bad this kind of support doesn't happen during a title match where
the outcome really matters.
- Syxx (w/Hall) beat Chavo Guerrero, Jr. to keep the Cruiserweight
belt.
- Eddie came into the entrance-way in the middle of the match.
A little later, Syxx was out on the floor with the ref watching him.
Hall came in and gave Chavo an Outsiders Edge that shook the entire
ring. The ref's belly was bouncing from the shock minutes later. Did
he do anything? Nope. Sad. Meanwhile, Eddie just stood in the
entrance-way and shook his head, disappointed.
- Commercial. WWF on.
- Steve "Mongo" McMichaels pinned Konan after a tombstone piledriver
- Konan was laid out in the ring with a broom next to him two
weeks ago when he was supposed to fight Mongo.
- Jeff Jarrett is on Horseman probation.
- Hugh Morrus came out with a stick. Konan focused his
attention on The Laughing Man, but the world-class WCW security team
held Morrus back. This is when Mongo came from behind for the finishing
move.
- Video history on Jimmy Hart's 3 steps for Benoit to get to Sullivan.
- Commercial. WWF on.
- Gene-O with Piper in the ring.
- Piper said that he's been too goody-two-shoes lately and that
he likes himself better when he's bad. He said that Ric Flair dates two
girls at a time so when Flair falls asleep they have someone to talk to.
- Flair stormed out without music and without an invitation to
come out by Gene-O or Piper.
- Let's take this quote by quote by the two greatest microphone
workers around:
Flair: "Decision...to chase Syxx...was in your best interest, my best
interest and in the best interest of the tag match, pal."
Piper: "I don't know about your best interest, but you left me to the
wolves. Millions of other people don't believe you, but I believe
you."
Flair: "What do you think millions of people thought about me wrestling
Hall and Syxx and Nash while you were floating around the Caribbean with
Jenny McCarthy, pal? That says I.C.O.N. (pointing to his shirt) and
this says Flair (pointing to himself). All I'm here to do tonight is to
help you avoid a disaster, pal. Do not make the mistake of questioning
me."
Mongo, the haliburton, Debra and Benoit come out to the ring.
Flair: "This is what I was trying to help you avoid."
Piper: "What's with the entourage? Please, please, please... this is
between Ric Flair and Roddy Piper. It's as simple as that."
Gene-O to Ric: "Ric is this any of your doing?"
Flair: "No, no," he said. To Piper: "It's over, lets go."
Piper: "I'm more than happy to go."
Mongo: "Listen up, pal," with a finger into Piper's chest, "Just because
Dennis Rodman isn't here tonight doesn't mean you need to wear a
skirt."
Flair: "Mongo, Mongo, Mongo, Mongo, Mongo," trying to defuse the
situation.
Piper: "I didn't come here for this, Ric, and this is the last thing you
want to get into, too. I don't need your cronies and I don't know nothin'
about Dennis Rodman and I don't need this big goat insulting me."
Mongo: "Listen up again, pal," with his finger to Piper's chest. "That
other team I was on didn't win the Super Bowl by letting the likes of
you mess with the team captain."
Flair: "Mongo, I told you, I want to put it to rest. Piper's a good guy
and he's going to go home, now let's go," he said while grabbing and
tugging at Piper's arm.
Piper: "Yeah, but you get control. I'm not gonna let somebody push me out
of the ring."
Flair: "He wasn't pushin' ya', he was just sayin' let's go, c'mon."
Piper: "You're the captain, you're the captain."
Flair: "Mongo, he's my man, I'm going to stand at his side. I'm
sorry."
Mongo: "Wait a minute, Nature Boy. Don't you know when this guy's pattin'
you on the back he's
lookin' for that soft spot to stick the knife in."
Benoit: "Piper -- you've been around waaaayyyyy too long... by the length
of your spine, it looks like you've got a good case of
ostereoporosis."
- Piper punches Benoit then Mongo and both go flying. Flair throws a
tantrum, stomping up and down, face getting red, throws a punch at
Piper, Piper blocks it and nails Flair. Benoit and Mongo get up and get
punched out again. Flair gets punched out then falls on his knees in
the corner begging for Piper to stop. Mongo nails him with the
haliburton and Piper goes down. Benoit puts Piper in the Crippler Cross
Face while Flair and Mongo stomp on his head.
- Commercial. WWF off.
- Glacier and Ernest Miller beat High Voltage after Miller nailed Rage
with a "jumping, spinning round kick from the top rope."
- Terrible match after the Horsemen re-united. Maybe a good
match for the first half of the first hour. Mortis and Wrath came out
after the match but stopped short of going in the ring.
- Lame Rodman/Hogan video.
- Commercial. WWF on.
- There was another commercial after DDP came out. WWF was on for 9
of the 10 commercial breaks. If there are attempts to go to commercial
while USA is on a commercial break, it didn't happen tonight.
- "Diamond" Dallas Page got the win over Hall via DQ after Savage
interfered.
- DDP told Kim to go backstage, and she sure didn't want to hang
around the ring after Hall AND Savage came out.
- DDP managed Hall before DDP was a wrestler.
- DDP went for the Diamond Cutter and Savage ran-in and attacked
DDP from behind.
- Much damage to DDP, including a backdrop superplex.
- Sting was in the crowd, and when Savage saw Sting, Savage
stopped from giving his elbow drop. Savage delivered the payload and
Sting went to the ring. Savage and Hall abandoned ship. They both
tried to come in the ring and attack Sting, who was standing over DDP,
but both got the bat.
- Note: Sting saved DDP by lifting him to the rafters a couple
weeks ago.
- Andrew Washington sent the following arena report: I was in attendence at last nights WCW Nitro. First off, I had spent hours making a bad ass sign. When I got there someone in a suit took it away. The sign wasn't large or had any profanity on it.
Now to the good stuff. There was one dark match. Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker vs. someone whose name I can't remember. The man was built and showed some talent. He pinned Buddy Lee in a suplex. Not much during the commercials. What the television didn't show was Macho Man trying another flying elbow and Sting hittingh him with the bat. Then Hall tried to get Sting and got the bat as well. Then Sting gave the DIAMOND CUTTER sign with his hands. Then he left the ring. Another thing happend, too. The ring girls let me and my friend HOLD THE TAG TEAM TITLE BELT OF SCOTT HALL. That belt is not light.
WCW {Pro} Wrestling - Sunday, 06/22/97
- High Voltage beat Prince Iaukea and Chavo Guerrero Jr. following the Volt Meter.
- There was a commercial for the WCW Power Plant.
- "Lately, the advertisements have been infrequent, which would imply they've gotten the enrollment they need." --Bill from the United Airlines segment of DDT Digest. I guess they need some more people to make up for the 85% drop out rate.
- Does Anybody Believe #1:
- Does anybody really believe that Kevin Sullivan will win the "Career Match" against Chris Benoit?
- Juventud Guerrera beat Villano 4 with a cradle pin after a springboard drop kick.
- Larry Z.: "Bring in the other 3 Villano's and have a good 8 man tag match."
- Villano 4 used an abdominal stretch and there were no suicide dives or action outside the ring...was this really a cruiserweight match with Mexican wrestlers?
- Meng beat Hector Guerrero with the Guzel.
- Before the commercial break the preceeded this match, there was film of Meng with the words: "Coming Up Next! He'll Get Your Guzel." So I guess that's the correct spelling.
- Personal thought: Bring out all the Guerreros to face all the Villanos.
- Does Anybody Really Believe #2:
- Does anybody really believe that the Steiner Brothers / Harlem Heat match on Nitro will end with a clean pin or submission without any interference or incident?
- "Traitor" Michael Wall$treet beat Hank Myers with the Stock Market Crash.
- Nick Patrick was the ref for Wall$treet's match...again.
- Billy Kidman pinned Lenny Lane after his Shooting Star Press.
- In the middle of the match, Lane was hanging upside down half in and half out of the ring in the ropes, after a Kidman drop-kick. A hand from outside the ring grabbed Lane's trunks and pulled him the rest of the way out. It was unclear at first, but upon furthur review, the hand clenched into a fist and pulled down, and Lane's body jerked to the ground quickly after the hand finished its movement. Sad. This was to set up Kidman's suicide dive.
- This was Lane's debut match in WCW, according to Larry Z. This means one of two things. The voiceover was very old, or "The Living Legend" is a fountain of misinformation. Lane has had at least one previous match, and I'm pretty sure two and his name changed between them. However, the {Pro} matches are often so old that, at the time it was filmed, it actually was Lane's first WCW match.
- Public Enemy mutilated Doc Dean while his partner, Robbie Brookside, took a break.
- Public Enemy was way over with the crowd. When Dean and Brookside got the early upper hand, there were lots of boos from the crowd. After the match, PE danced with little kids in their arms. Would you trust Grunge and Rock with your little daughter?
- They did the table in the ring thing again with Doc Dean on the table. Rocco Rock did a flying head butt from the top rope, but the table didn't break and Dean fell off. Dean was put back on the table and Grunge pounced on him from the top turnbuckle then Dean was pinned.
- Meanwhile, Brookside had a vacation outside the ring. He was such a spectator that he should have bought a ticket. The table maneuver took many minutes, and Brookside was down and out after he was only thrown over the top rope. Wrestlers have gotten up from a Diamond Cutter or a Texas Cloverleaf faster than Brookside got up. Sad.
WCW Saturday Night - Saturday, 06/21/97
- OK, everyone, a little history lesson. As many of you may know, unfortunately a number of wrestlers in the WWF were injured in a car accident about a week ago. Reports are that Psycho Sid was driving their Lincoln about 90 miles an hour and went to adjust the sunroof. He lost control and the car flipped three or four times. Flash Funk / 2 Cold Scorpio walked away from the accident. Sid aggravated an existing back injury and will probably now require surgery to fix a problem he was hoping to solve with epidurals. Doug Furnas got banged up but nothing serious. Phil LaFon got the worst of it, broken shoulder and some head injuries. He will eventually recover, but he was hurt pretty bad. Of course, none of them were wearing seat belts. Anyway, aside from the fact that should have been wearing seat belts, what's the lesson from all this? The answer at the end of my report.
- You know, no one likes to job, but if I were the Harlem Heat, I'd be more than willing to job to the Steiner Brothers this week on Nitro. Given the "greeting" Harlem Heat got from the racist bikers last year at Sturgis, if I were them I would not want to go back.
- My guess on Savage's mystery partner is "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, not Sting. My theory on this is that Hennig and Hall were partners 11 years ago in the AWA. They were face tag team AWA World Tag Team Champions having beaten Jim Garvin and Steve Regal (a different guy than the current WCW World Television Champion). I remember being in a bar in downtown Troy, NY and the AWA just happened to be on TV. I happened to look up and see Hennig and Hall losing the titles to "Playboy" Buddy Rose and "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers. It was a really weird ending as Hall and Hennig lost the match via countout and confusion reigned as Rose and Somers were awarded the titles. The angle was that unbeknownst to Hall and Hennig, they had signed an unusual contract for the match where they could lose the titles on a countout. I'm pretty sure Hall was busted open at the end of the match. I'm definitely sure he was a lot bigger. Who was the manager of Rose and Somers that night? None other that Sherri Martel (Sister Sherri).
- Harlem Heat def. The Power Company when Booker T. made the pin after the Big Apple. I couldn't see whether the guy he pinned was the guy with the tattoo or not...they still don't have names.
- M. Wallstreet pinned Jumpin' Joey Maggs following the Stock Market Crash.
- Dusty Rhodes theorized during the match that the reason Nick Patrick had joined the nWo was that "maybe space aliens had done taken over his brain".
- La Parka and Silver King def. Super Calo and Juventud Guerrera when La Parka pinned Super Calo after Silver King executed a forward roll guillotine leg drop on Super Calo and rolled them over as Super Calo was attempting a cover on La Parka after a top turnbuckle frankensteiner.
- WCW World Cruiserweight Champion Syxx made "Lionheart" Chris Jericho submit to the Buzzkiller in a clean job to retain the title.
- "The Total Package" Lex Luger and The Giant def. Buff Bagwell and Scott "Flash" Norton when Giant pinned Norton following a chokeslam.
- In the post match interview, the Giant told Rodman to wear a black dress to Bash at the Beach because it will be Hogan's funeral.
- The lesson to be learned from the car accident is that Flash Funk / 2 Cold Scorpio should stay the hell away from Psycho Sid. Back on 10/28/93, Psycho Sid and Arn Anderson went at it in a hotel room with a pair of scissors (see my Arn Anderson page for more info). Who was the first wrestler to rush into the room and have to break it up? 2 Cold Scorpio.